Civil servants are upset that their pay is being cut like everyone else’s
Poor babies: civil servants have implemented government policies that have caused the cost-of-living crisis and a dramatic fall in UK living standards. Did they really think they were not going to be hit as badly as the rest of us?
Members of the organisation that implements government policy are reportedly up in arms after finding out that the policies they are implementing also affect them.
With inflation surging to seven or eight per cent, Cabinet Office minister Heather Wheeler has informed public sector employers that they may award pay rises up to just two per cent, plus up to an extra percentage point in some cases, to be “targeted at specific priorities in their workforce and pay strategies”.
It’s a massive pay cut, the same as the rest of us are facing.
The Guardian article I’m using as a source suggests that average rises are 4.8 per cent but I’ve yet to hear of anybody receiving that much. What happens to that average if it’s applied only to the bottom 90 per cent of earners?
Meanwhile, MPs are getting a huge pay rise that will cover increased costs – even though most of them will claim those costs on expenses in any case.
Mark Serwotka of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union did his duty by pointing out that the government is cutting pay in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis:
“The failure of the government to recognise the cost-of-living crisis is a disgrace and shows utter contempt to our members, who have worked themselves to the bone during the pandemic … PCS will now be discussing an industrial response to this outrage.”
But didn’t the rest of us work just as hard to keep the UK going during the pandemic? This Writer didn’t stop working for a single day but my income has fallen hugely.
And the civil service has been happy to implement the decisions that are impoverishing the rest of us.
It would be easy to say that these people should have had a backbone and refused to inflict misery on millions of their fellow citizens.
But that would be unrealistic. They are servants – it’s in their job title. Their purpose is to do what the government demands, no matter how destructive or deranged.
So it’s better to say:
If the civil service will force the rest of us to suffer this government-inflicted persecution, it should be prepared to join us in it, rather than taking industrial action out of self-interest.
Source: Fury after civil service pay rises capped at 3% amid surging inflation
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Your idea that civil servants should refuse to obey the instructions of their senior managers and thereby make themselves vulnerable to being sacked – legitimately, would simply make it easier for the department they work for to sack them and either re-employ them at a lower salary or employ others willing to take the lower salary. A bit silly don’t you think? Civil servants like any other employees are able to take industrial action if they are being treated badly and so they should.
Did I say they weren’t? No.
My point is valid. Why should civil servants expect to be treated differently from the rest of us?
Someone else has said they have suffered pay freezes for years, implying that they deserve better treatment now – but we all know that the Tories don’t work that way. They don’t care how badly you’ve suffered in the past – they want to pile on more.
Anybody enabling that, in any way, needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror and work out what that says about them.
Civil Servants have had their pay slashed by year in year under inflation pay rises. We’ve seen our standard of living slashed as much or more than anyone else. Don’t confuse the top end of tge service with those that keep the country going, pay the benefits and keep order. And are have been penalised by successive governments for doing so.
Yes, you’ve done all the work and the toffs have defecated on you from a great height.
Why do you keep working for them, then?